


The Bro Code

by Lavavulture



Series: Dragon-Somethings [2]
Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Background Iron Bull/Male Trevelyan, F/F, M/M, background Dorian/Cullen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-29
Updated: 2016-06-09
Packaged: 2018-05-16 22:43:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5843812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lavavulture/pseuds/Lavavulture
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Blackwall and Cole are trying to have a perfectly ordinary doomed love affair and Sera is having none of it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. It's Only Gross All of the Time

**Author's Note:**

> This is a sequel to [Creepy-In-Law](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5264861), in which Sera macks on Cole's not-dead little sister Bunny. This time things are not going her way.

Sera had seen many terrible things in her life. She’d seen horrors on the streets as a child, avenged a few with the Friends, and been rendered mute—temporarily—with terror from what she’d seen at the Herald’s side.

But this. This was a horror the likes of which she’d never encountered before and prayed she would never see again.

“My eyes!” Sera shouted and threw one hand back behind her in warning. “Bunny, cover your eyes!”

And Bunny gasped and giggled but did quickly cover her eyes, which Sera saw when she peeked back at her to ensure that her sweetheart was safe from this terrible sight. Then Sera turned back around because one of them had to be strong and she knew she couldn’t let it be the woman she loved.

“You daft girl,” Blackwall said, even more grumpily than normal, which was probably because they’d walked in on him with his hands down the back of Cole’s tight leathers and snogging him like it was a competitive sport. Their shirts were already on the floor and Sera was bamboozled with terror to see the little love bites all over Blackwall’s hairy chest.

“You can’t be doing this!” Sera moaned and covered her face with her hands. “Was it an accident? Was it trying to help you find a switch to have guilty floggings and got confused? No, that’s worse! Stop thinking that, everybody!”

“Stop making such an all-fired fuss over it.” Blackwall rubbed the back of his neck, which was turning lightly red from the attention. He cleared his throat and turned to Cole. 

“Perhaps we should discuss this later? I should deal with this bloody prat before she wakes up the whole keep.”

“It complicates complications, makes it even harder not to see it. Oh, that’s me!” Cole peered hopefully over to Sera. “You can see me as me and not as something else. It won’t hurt.”

“Let me buy you a drink, Brother, and we can try that soup that Varric likes so much.” Bunny held out her hand to Cole who obediently slipped his shirt on and followed her out of the stable. Bunny winked at Sera as she went, somehow holding up under what had be incredible despair. She was so brave.

“How?” Sera blanched and waved her hands frantically. “No, don’t want to know. That’d be worse than not. We all make mistakes and that’s what makes us better or some shite. We’ll look back on this later and have a laugh.”

“This wasn’t the first time,” Blackwall said and Sera groaned.

“What? No. You can’t say this to me.”

“It’s no matter. We can’t be together.” Blackwall gathered up his stoniest face of self-recrimination and guilt and wore it like a shield. “It’s wrong.”

“Yes!” Sera nodded although the pained look on his face slightly pricked through the wall of disgust she was feeling. “It’s my girl’s ghost-brother. My best friend can’t snog my girlfriend’s dead brother. That would be a mess.”

Blackwall turned around to face the back of his stable. His broad shoulders were high and tense. “Yes. A terrible mess. I’m no sort of man for him.”

Sera made a face at his back. She hated it when Blackwall went all guilty, broody Thom Rainier on her. She opened her mouth to call him something insulting because a fight was always better than being sad but he cut her off.

“I’ll speak with him. I’ll tell him that we’ve made a mistake. Now leave me be for now. I’m in no mood to be made to feel better.”

Sera crossed her arms furiously because of course that would be what was right but Blackwall was making it sound all wrong and that made her so angry that she didn’t want to see him right now.

“Fine!” Sera turned and stomped out of the stable. She barely got three steps out before doubt and affection for Blackwall almost made her run back in but she made herself keep going by deliberately bringing up the memory of Cole’s breathy moans, as familiar as they were horrifying.

“Yuck!”

 

“I think that it’s turnip,” Bunny said doubtfully, lifting her spoon out the thick stew and squinting at it. “It tastes like turnip.”

“There were three in the field. She needed more but it never rained and when she put them in her mouth, it tasted like ash.” Cole wrapped his hands around the steaming mug Iron Bull had shoved into their hands as soon as they’d seen him. He took a small sip of the dark liquid and then blinked, cheeks going rosy in pleasure. “This is nice.”

Bunny took a cautious sip and gasped in delight. “Oh, it’s sweet!”

“Add some bourbon to it, kids. It’ll fucking knock you to the ground,” Iron Bull said in a loud, satisfied rumble across the tavern.

Cole looked worriedly down to the ground as Bunny looked longingly at a bottle beside the dwarf bartender. He rolled his eyes but shoved it at her. He waggled his finger in warning. “This is the last one, got it? And you better not give any to that damn elf.” 

“Of course,” Bunny said, her pale eyes wide as saucers. She swiftly poured some bourbon into her and Cole’s cups and then shoved the bottle down into a knapsack at her feet. She grabbed Cole’s hand and began pulling him away from the bar and towards a table. 

“You lied to him,” Cole said, almost reprovingly as they sat down. “You said you wouldn’t give any to Sera but you already are in your head so that she’ll be soft with you.”

“He’s mean,” Bunny whispered fiercely. “It’s okay to lie if people are being mean.”

Cole looked doubtful but the gentle sip he took of his drink apparently stole away whatever admonishment he had left in him. He curled it close to his chest and closed his eyes. “It’s warm.”

“Mmmmm,” Bunny agreed, closing her own eyes and pressing the side of the cup to her mouth. It was like sitting in front of a roaring fire and hearing an elder tell a story. She could almost hear the wind howling through the mountains.

“You both look like real knobs,” Sera said in a cranky voice. She pushed her way to sit between them and slumped her head on Bunny’s shoulder. 

Cole tilted his head a moment towards the door as though he was looking for someone else but eventually turned his eyes down into the chocolaty hot drink. He looked slightly sadder than normal and it tugged at Bunny’s chest.

“Blackwall not want drinks? He’d probably like this.” Bunny offered Sera a little sip of her drink and then winking, reached down into her pack to show her the bottle of bourbon.

“He’s busy,” Sera said shortly.

“The shadows feel wrong again. This wasn’t supposed to happen so quickly,” Cole murmured and then sighed.

Sera harrumphed and Bunny narrowed her eyes. She loved Sera, more than she’d ever thought she could love another person, but she was awfully silly sometimes. Bunny leaned forward on the table and gave Cole a sly look from under the wild tousle that was her hair. “Tell me, Brother, does Blackwall’s beard tickle when you kiss?”

“No! What? No,” Sera screeched so loud that Krem turned his head towards them and frowned reproachfully. Sera made an obscene gesture in Krem’s direction and hissed to Bunny, “I don’t think you know how brothers and sisters work. You can’t ask that.”

“You don’t have any brothers or sisters,” Bunny said reasonably. “How do you know? I was just curious because it looks like it would tickle. Cole doesn’t mind my asking. Do you?”

Cole thoughtfully touched his mouth, considering. “After seven months in the mountains alone a traveling merchant had a mirror that showed a stranger and it felt like the truth.”

“Good luck to you getting a straight answer,” Sera said gloatingly.

Bunny shrugged and giggled. “I bet it does tickle. Everywhere.”

“Ewww!” Sera shrieked and was inconsolable until Iron Bull came over and told them to shove off before he put them to bed personally. 

 

Sera was having a surprisingly good time considering she was playing card games and not drinking. Trevelyan was such a bad card player that he owed Sera half his family’s estate and they’d barely been playing for an hour.

“I don’t know if my parents would actually give you any money,” Trevelyan said tremulously, his round eyes worried. “They’re unhappy that I became an apostate and then the leader of the Inquisition. Mother wrote to say that I’m being difficult on purpose even though I’m not.”

“That’s all right. I’ll take your big bed instead of the money,” Sera said magnanimously. “You think it’ll fit in my room?”

“No,” Trevelyan said and looked even more worried at that, as though he was being a bad person by having a bed too big to fit into the tiny balcony of a tavern. Sera wanted to laugh at him but it was a bit like laughing at a sad kitten.

“What are you two doing?” Iron Bull asked, wandering into the Inquisitor’s bedroom like he owned it. Which, as Sera thought about it, by this point he basically did.

“Sera won our bed in a card game,” Trevelyan said apologetically. His round eyes grew so large and sad that it was physically painful to look at. “I’m sorry, Bull.”

“I’ll bet I can work something out. Can’t I, Sera?” Iron Bull clapped his hand on Trevelyan’s back and gave Sera a stern look through his one eye. “I’ll bet you’ll take a pound of that chocolate powder I got instead.”

Sera pretended to consider it for a moment. Bunny would be over the moon if she brought her more of that chocolate. She was practically breathing it in at this point. “Suppose I could be the bigger person. Forgive the debts and the debtors, you know. Since we’re all friends here.”

“See, now that’s nice,” Iron Bull rumbled in satisfaction and leaned over to kiss Trevelyan gently. Trevelyan’s worried expression melted into the dewy-eyed look of complete adoration he always had around Iron Bull. It made Sera want to set fire to their desk. She was in love and she wasn’t mooning around all the time. Although she and Bunny had mooned the cook last week, which she thought was a beautiful expression of their devotion. Bull pulled away with a soft chuckle and growled at Sera, “Now get the fuck out of here.”

Sera rolled her eyes and made a disgusted sound but figured she was done for the night. They certainly weren’t and she didn’t trust Iron Bull not to start while she was still there. They had weird, crazy, loud sex and she didn’t want to be a witness to any part of it.

She took the stairs three at a time and swung around the corner and through the door. It was dark in the main hall and Sera idly wondered if Varric had fallen asleep by the fireplace again. She was about to go check—and possibly startle him awake—when she heard soft whispering on the other side of Trevelyan’s enormous stone throne. Sera pressed her lips together in delight at the idea of spooking some Orlesian noblemen loitering in the keep. She carefully tucked herself to the side of the throne and began sliding around until she finally caught sight of Blackwall and Cole in the shadows, murmuring quietly.

“You’ll understand in time,” Blackwall was saying in his stoniest voice. His arms were crossed against his chest and his back was the ramrod-straight pose that Sera recognized as his lecturing stance.

“I do understand. You want to make the hurting smaller later by making it big now. But you don’t know that there will be hurting later,” Cole said softly, pleadingly. He slipped his long fingers into the folds of Blackwall’s coat and moved closer. Blackwall tried to pull back but he was already against a statue. “Sometimes there’s helping later instead. Varric says that you can’t believe that it has to be one or the other. It’s usually both.”

“Varric is no one to talk about this,” Blackwall snapped and then sighed. He gently unfolded his arms and slid his hands up to Cole’s elbows, gripping them. “Cole, don’t be stubborn. You must know this is for the best. You see to all the worst in me.”

“Everything in you wants to be better,” Cole murmured and his voice had a quality in it that Sera had never heard before, a tone that made her squirm from her stunned position beside the throne. He leaned forward, mouth slightly parted. “I want to be better too.”

“We can’t do this,” Blackwall said and then kissed him fiercely. This gave Sera the jolt she needed to slip away, louder than she wanted but she was confident that they wouldn’t hear, not while they were kissing each other like they were about to fall into a deadly pit.

As Sera fled the main hall she realized that she had fallen into a sort of pit. It was a messy, gross pit of feelings and soppiness that she wanted no part of but she was starting to think that she had no choice. Apparently everybody else went insane when they fell in love.

 

“You want to what?” Bunny rubbed her blue eyes hard as she sleepily rose up from the cushions on Sera’s bed area. Sera had a brief moment to lament that she really could use a bed and probably the Inquisitor’s bed would fit in her room. Maybe if they stuck half of it out the window? Sera shook her head and returned it to the issue at hand.

“Not me. We. We’re going to get Blackwall and Creepy—uh, your brother—to start acting like regular people instead of Cassandra’s book people. Regular snogging where I don’t have to see it and no more sad speeches.” Sera made a face as she remembered the weepy look on Blackwall’s face. Most people would have seen it as stern and unyielding but he was her best friend and she’d seen him blink tears away when Josephine had had her sad book reading last month. She knew when he was feeling things and she would not stand for it.

“Oh,” Bunny said and considered. She slowly began to smile. “All right.”

“That’s my girl,” Sera said briskly and nodded. “Get out a piece of paper and start listing it out. I’m going to think of ideas.”

Bunny reached down into her knapsack where she apparently kept everything that had ever existed and pulled out a thick swatch of papers. She started looking around for something to write with but Sera couldn’t wait. When she was really thinking, it was a like a waterfall. 

“First idea, fire in the stable. Might spook the horses and Creepy is spooky. Second, those Orlesian biscuits with the red jam inside.” Sera paused a moment. “Do we have any more of those? Those were all right.”

“I think so,” Bunny said, looking around again. She had given up trying to find a quill and turned the whole responsibility over to a shimmery green spirit who was carving the words into a big piece of rock that Sera had thought looked like Cassandra’s chest plate. Bunny picked up a lacy handkerchief and scrunched up her nose. “Can’t use those.”

“Forget the jam. Creepy don’t eat right anyway. New idea, magic that traps people in cellars until they snog and be better to each other.”

Bunny nodded solemnly and snapped her fingers at the spirit, who had stopped writing to stare doubtfully at Sera. It returned to writing.

“I’m thinking something with a big pretend battle? Blackwall used to do that. And girls would give him their silky whatnots.” Sera made a complicated face in disgust at where that idea led her. “Not doing that. Oh, jealous shite! That's it!”

Sera stopped talking and whirled on Bunny in triumph. Bunny widened her eyes and nodded slowly. She reached out for Sera’s sleeve. “You’re magnificent.”

“Might be,” Sera said humbly, sniffing. She pushed Bunny back down on the cushioned seat and scowled up at the spirit. “Don’t watch!”

The spirit—which was a hard-working spirit of Order that rather liked Bunny despite her fondness for this irrational creature—obediently began rising up into the ceiling. It had its own thoughts about Sera’s idea but it didn’t really think it was worth trying to talk to her. Maybe it would visit the Sky Watcher until things calmed down.


	2. Sera Is a Living Saint and Bunny Is Probably a Huge, Old-Timey Stoner

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> People, I'm a little embarrassed because I thought that I had posted this last part a loooong time ago. Oops!

“Let me see if I understand you correctly.” Dorian leaned his cheek on one hand. He looked well-coifed and refined, despite the fact that he’d been studying in the library since the crack of dawn. Sera sometimes felt the urge to muss up her hair even more when she talked to Dorian, although he never seemed particularly bothered by her appearance. It was a definite point in his favor. “You want me to try to seduce Cole so that Blackwall will become jealous and—how did you say it—snog him someplace regular so you don’t have to blind yourself?”

“Right, easy.” Sera nodded, grateful that this conversation was going better. She’s gone to Varric first, out of some vague notion that Cole might be drawn to his copious amount of chest hair, similar in quantity if not in color to the hair on Blackwall’s chest. Varric had not been open to the idea. He’d been _very_ not open to the idea. Sera wasn’t going to talk to him for a few days. This was better. Clearly it was the facial hair that was the bigger draw anyway. “You just do your mustache at him and Blackwall will have to do something. ‘Cause of the beard. Rivalry, you know?”

“Does what she says ever make sense to you?” Dorian asked Bunny, who beamed at him in delight. Sera scowled. Bunny thought that Dorian was particularly handsome.

“Perfect sense. It’ll work for certain,” Bunny said loyally, slipping her hand into Sera’s clenched grasp. She glanced almost shyly at him through the wild fringe of her hair, pale eyes big and pleading. “Please? My brother is so sad now that Blackwall is trying not to talk to him anymore.”

Sera nodded her head hard at the statement. She didn’t have much to add to the idea of Cole being sad since his hangdog face looked as melancholy to her these days as it ever had but she had noticed how awkward it was now that Blackwall was trying to avoid him. Especially since his attempts still included intense, disturbing kissing sessions late at night in random places that Sera kept stumbling over. The last time she’d nearly broken her neck tripping over them in the wine cellar and Cole had sprained his wrist, since she’d accidentally knocked him out of Blackwall’s lap while his hand was down the front of his trousers. 

Dorian leaned back in his chair. “Blackwall and Cole? I’m a little surprised. Although I suppose Blackwall is appealing in a grim, rustic sort of way.”

“He’s loads of fun,” Sera said hotly. “When he’s not all about the guilty sad carvings and kid stories. Creepy’s lucky to snog him. Gross.”

Bunny squeezed Sera’s hand in comfort, perhaps a little too hard, and Sera amended her statement. “I mean, they’re both lucky. Lots of gross snogging for everybody.”

Sera couldn’t help the disgusted face that burst out of her at the thought. She was so familiar now with the sight of their kissing faces that it was seared into her eyelids. It had gotten so bad that she’d actually talked to one of Bunny’s spirits, just to complain about it to someone new. Resilience had been very sympathetic.

Dorian lounged further in his chair, considering, and then shrugged. “All right.”

“Really?” Sera’s eyes boggled in shock. “You’re serious?”

“Why not?” Dorian waved his hand magnanimously. “Let’s do it in the garden. Tomorrow, perhaps. I’m playing a game with the Commander down there anyway. I can teach Cole how to play chess. It might do us both some good.”

Dorian seemed to be talking more to himself with that last statement but Sera had stopped listening anyway. She turned a triumphant face to Bunny, already as proud as she would be when the deed was actually done. “Told you I’d fix it.”

“You’re wonderful,” Bunny said with a floaty sort of smile on her face. Sera smirked and dipped her down for a congratulatory kiss.

Dorian coughed politely at them and then not so politely when the soft kiss turned to full-fledged making out. They finally left when Dorian drenched them both in warm rainwater; Bunny still giggling her way down the stairs as she rung out of her long hair. Solas was not amused by the puddle they left near his desk. 

 

“I thought perhaps Cole could join us for a game today, Commander,” Dorian said. Cole was standing beside the chess table like an awkward stork, his head tilted towards Dorian. Sera wasn’t sure what Bunny had said to him to get him to come down to the gardens for this but for the moment he wasn’t ruining her perfect plan with his babbling.

Beside Sera, Blackwall actually tensed when he saw Cole, which was so ridiculous that she almost shoved him. Actually she did shove him but she covered it up by pretending that she’d wanted a better look at the plant Bunny had lured them out into the gardens to see.

“The Avvar smoke this in their pipes when they’re meeting with other clans.” Bunny poked at the plant with one long finger and smiled up at Blackwall. “You’ll like it.”

“Just a bit perhaps,” Blackwall said stiffly, his eyes locked so tight on Bunny’s face that it had to be uncomfortable. Behind them they could hear Cullen’s surprised assent to letting Cole sit in on their game and Dorian’s pleased (loud) suggestion that Cole sit on the bench beside him.

“Make it big.” Sera held out of her hands to indicate how much Bunny should prepare for him and slapped Blackwall hard on the shoulder. “Got nothing on today, right? Inky’s out looking for magic books and you finished making that big cow.”

“It’s a wyvern, you silly girl. Cows don’t have those long tails.” Blackwall frowned but did loosen up enough for Bunny to fill his pipe with the sweet-smelling plant. 

The first few exploratory puffs didn’t seem to faze him much but by the time that Blackwall passed his pipe along to Sera, he was noticeably more relaxed than he’d been before. He glanced around the gardens with faux casualness until finally he turned his head towards the chess match. He watched Dorian explain a move to Cole, pressing his bare shoulder against his as he gestured. Cullen looked terribly confused. Blackwall looked like he was trying to determine if it was possible to murder someone with his eyes and if so, if he would feel guilty about it later. 

Sera took a quick puff off of the pipe and then immediately choked. Bunny giggled in delight at her and swiped the pipe away. “Not like that, silly! Like this.”

Bunny demonstrated and it was fucking hot as far as Sera was concerned but she wasn’t doing this for her benefit. This was about Blackwall. She snatched the pipe back and pushed it back into Blackwall’s lax hand. “Do one of those circle smoke things you did before!”

“I’m not a performing bear,” Blackwall said crankily but he did what she asked, his eyes locked on Dorian’s back. Bunny was newly delighted and flopped her head down onto Sera’s lap. Sera wondered if she’d forgotten the point of all of this in just the past few minutes. Bunny could be pretty scatter-brained at times, which Sera thought was the only possible result of delegating everything to spirits.

“I wonder if you could do that clever thing you do and tell me what the Commander’s next move is going to be,” Dorian said to Cole, his voice filled with such a perfect blend of tease and promise that Sera was impressed. As Sera continued to watch Blackwall watch the chess match, Dorian actually slid his hand up onto the table against Cole’s long fingers in a pointedly flirtatious move.

Blackwall shot up to his feet. Sera joined him a moment later, hissing apologetically when her movement rolled Bunny onto the ground. Bunny chortled and stayed on the ground, leaning her head back so that she could see Blackwall.

“What’re we doing?” Sera asked, her muscles tense in expectation. She wondered if Blackwall was going to try to punch Dorian in his pretty face and if she should try to hold him back in that event. She didn’t want Dorian to turn Blackwall into a goat or something just because she was brilliant at plans and romance.

Blackwall didn’t answer her, didn’t even spare her a second’s glance. What he did do was stomp over to the table until he reached Cullen’s side. Everyone at the table looked at him. Cullen still seemed terribly confused but Dorian was smirking while Cole was staring at Blackwall with a familiar look that made Sera want to turn her head for fear of witnessing more horrible snogging. She didn’t though. She was brave.

“You’ve left yourself wide open, Lord Pavus,” Blackwall said. He picked up one of Cullen’s pieces and swiftly moved it along the table. Dorian’s brows furrowed as Blackwall drew close to his king. “Checkmate, I believe.”

“Oh, yes,” Cullen said, surprised. “Thank you?”

“Couldn’t stand to watch such a sorry match. People shouldn’t play if they’re not going to take the game seriously.” Blackwall nodded to them all and marched away, head held high. Cole followed him a second later, his long legs clipping through the flowers in the garden.

Sera watched them go and then glanced down to Bunny, who had her hand pressed to her mouth in surprise. She shrugged up at Sera who turned her attention over to Dorian. But Dorian had transferred all of his focus over to Cullen, who by this point was looking so confused that it made Sera want to push him into a lake.

“He wants to snog you already!” Sera shouted in irritation and rushed out of the garden. She was going to go find a hot bath and soak in it until everybody learned how to deal with their feelings like fucking adults.

The moment she entered the main hall, the sound of shocked silence hit her like a giant’s hammer. Normally the hall was filled with the whispering, gossiping followers of the Inquisition and the room would sound like a genteel version of the tavern at all hours of the day.

The people were still in the hall but their mouths were too busy trying to reach the floor for them to be whispering and it only took Sera a second to see why. Cole and Blackwall were standing near the entrance of the hall, kissing one another so fiercely that it was clear they were moments away from involving everybody else in a very uncomfortable sexual encounter.

Near them Varric was staring with eyes that were equal parts pleased and horrified, his hand hovering over a piece of parchment while ink dripped all over his work. Everybody else was stuck mostly on the horrified end of the spectrum.

Sera felt nothing. She realized that they had broken her with their grotesque snogging because all she could feel as she watched her best friend and her girl’s spooky brother try to suck one another’s faces off was the faint hope that it might be over. Perhaps her plan had truly worked and she could move on to the next phase in her life, living as a recluse in the tavern with the windows boarded up so that she couldn’t catch an accidental glimpse of them.

A servant came in through Josephine’s office, whistling cheerfully. He dropped the pitcher in his hands when he saw the spectacle at the entrance of the hall. The crash broke through whatever horrible spell had fused Blackwall and Cole’s faces together and they broke apart. 

Blackwall looked stunned, as if he was every bit as surprised as the rest of room to find that he’d been shoving his tongue down someone else’s throat in front of them. Cole didn’t seem to notice that anybody else was around. His gaze was focused on Blackwall so intently that Sera was worried he might move on to taking bites out of his beard.

“My apologies,” Blackwall said with a cough and then turned. He walked briskly out of the room, trying to maintain his dignity while pulling Cole along with him.

Sera sat in a chair opposite of Varric and he turned his still-stunned attention on her. She shook her head slowly as she reached for his flagon of ale. Poor innocent bastard. He’d just had a taste of the horror and he already looked like he’d peered into the void. 

This was why it had to be her who fixed the whole thing. Clearly everybody else was incapable of facing this abomination and thinking rationally.

 

“Cole and I are going to the Hinterlands come tomorrow. I want to show him the cabin I stayed in.” Blackwall looked momentarily uncomfortable. “You and the lass are welcome to come along if you like.”

“Bleurgh.” Sera showed her opinion of this idea with all the force she could muster. She nearly touched the bottom of her chin with her tongue while she spread her lips with her fingers so she figured the message had to have gone through.

“Well, I asked.” Blackwall was terrible at hiding his relief and it made Sera make more gagging noises in her throat. 

It had been two weeks since Blackwall and Cole had shocked the sensibilities of the Inquisition’s upper class followers. Sera had been present when Josephine had delivered a truly masterful admonishment of their behavior, filled with polite but forceful suggestions that they keep their hands—and everything else—to themselves when they were in front of nobility. Trevelyan had been a wilting flower in the corner while Josephine spoke, trembling as though she was speaking directly to him, but once the Ambassador had calmly moved on he’d found the courage to speak to them.

“I’m glad, you know,” Trevelyan had said and nearly didn’t blush when Blackwall and Cole turned their attention to him. He’d half-disappeared into the folds of his voluminous mage robes and murmured, “I think it’s good if you make each other happy.”

“Thank you, Your Worship,” Blackwall had said, his face the most incredible combination of stony embarrassment and worry. He’d been wearing that face since the Event but after Trevelyan’s stilted encouragement, stony joy joined the mix and never left. 

Cole had said something baffling and nonsensical and Sera wasn’t going to start listening to him when he talked, just because she was doing his sister on the regular and he was getting it more than regular from her closest friend. She still had standards, thank you.

But honestly as Sera leaned back on her cushioned chair and listened to Blackwall try to make fake excuses for why he couldn’t play another round of cards with her, she thought that she might have lowered up her high standards a little. It was still plain fact that mages were scary and spirit-demon-whatevers were just wrong and fake Wardens shouldn’t snog in front of her ever. However Sera was starting to feel more comfortable being the bigger person. She couldn’t control what outrageousness the world threw at her so she might as well be more generous towards the insanity. In the long run, it would probably be less of a headache.

So as Blackwall ran out of excuses and finally just left in order to suck new horrible bruises against Cole’s long neck, Sera turned casually to the shimmery green spirit hovering beside her.

“Did you find it, then?” Sera asked, tapping her foot against the wooden panel under her cushion.

The spirit dipped its shimmery head down in what Sera had to take as a yes because she was a bigger person and accepted that spirits communicated like shit most of the time. It pointed the area that looked the most like one of its hands towards a spot in the corner of the room.

“Cheers,” Sera said, rubbing her hands together. “Now fuck off.”

Resilience bounced slowly for a few more moments before floating up to the ceiling. Sera thought about warning it that if it went to the third floor, it was bound to get an eyeful (or whatever the spirit equivalent was) but she couldn’t be a hero to everyone all the time.

As soon as it left Sera dove off of her cushion and rummaged around in that corner until she found the charm Resilience had found for her. It was strange and lumpy but she’d been assured by the Sky Watcher that it was the proper first step.

Bunny entered the room while Sera was still poking at the charm and fantasizing so it took her by surprise. When Sera looked up at Bunny’s pale, sunny face and her wide smile, all the lines she’d been running through in her head immediately disappeared. The only thing she could push through suddenly numb lips was stilted and high-pitched.

“We should get married. If you’re not busy later.”

It wasn’t the most romantic of proposals but as Sera held out the charm limply in her hands, Bunny’s wide smile cracked even wider and she dropped to the ground beside her. Then they were kissing like two fumbling sheep in a closet and Bunny was laughing out her response and Sera hated magic but the entire world felt like it was filled with it and she didn’t care anymore.

“Yes, yes, yes!”


End file.
